London's new millionaires' rows: streets with average house price of £1m or more have soared - Hackney
10-30-2020
London's new millionaires' rows: streets with average house price of £1m or more have soared
The number of streets where the average house price has hit £1 million has surged in east London in the past five years.
RUTH BLOOMFIELD
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London has seen an explosion in the number of £1m streets in the past year, with east London leading the charge.
According to research published today by Rightmove there has been a massive 900 per cent increase in the number of streets in Hackney where the average value of a property is £1m. Back in 2015 there were just three. Now there are 30.
Dalston has also seen a tremendous reversal in fortunes over the past few years. The once cheap-and-cheerful poor relation to nearby Islington has seen its number of £1m streets jump by 600 per cent since 2015 to a total of 28.
Hackney's boom in £1 million homes
In Hackney addresses close to Victoria Park, have all seen big price increases, with four bedroom townhouses now reaching prices of between around £1.25m and £1.4m.
The most expensive of all is Meynell Crescent, with an average price of almost £1.5m. Film fans will recognise it from the movie Run Fatboy Run; hero Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) flees his fiancée Libby Odell (Thandie Newton), abandoning her at her flat at 21 Meynell Crescent.
MeynellCrescentSimonPegg.jpg
Simon Pegg on Hackney's Meynell Crescent in Run, Fat Boy, Run
Other key addresses include Fassett Square, a traditional Victorian enclave on the border of Hackney and Dalston which is said to have been the inspiration for EastEnders’ Albert Square.
Today the square is more city trader than market trader, with a charming central garden which has been renovated by residents with the aid of a National Lottery grant.
One of its three bedroom terraces would now cost between £1.2m and £1.4m.
£1,385,000: this three-bedroom house on Fassett Square, E8. Contact Keatons (Rightmove/Keatons)
Jodie Ryan, sales director of Dexters Hackney, said a budget of £1m would currently buy a “large maisonette apartment or a two, possibly three bedroom house”, with affluent first time buyer couples and city workers moving out of Islington, the City or west London vying for property.
“Hackney and Dalston are in such high demand we're selling most of our houses before they even launch online,” she said.
Saylan Lucas, manager of Winkworth Hackney, finds most buyers are young couples or families with a flat to sell who need more space.
“It is an increasingly common trend that buyers are willing to forgo the more prime location of their flats for a larger property and outside space,” he said.
“The events of this year appear to have acted as a catalyst for this mind-set with more people prepared to be less central with a severely undermined need for a shorter commute time.”
London's new £1 million streets hotspots
Other key locations highlighted by today’s report include Finsbury, on the northern fringes of the City.
It has also had a £1m street surge according to today’s report, up from just six in 2015 to 24 today, thanks to the proliferation of high end new developments springing up including Principle Tower and One Crown Place, where even a one bedroom flat costs north of £1m.
£1.7 million: a five-bedroom house in the Albert Square Conservation Area near Stockwell. For sale through Dexters
Stockwell, flying the flag for south London and neatly placed to benefit from the ongoing regeneration of Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station, and suburban Beckenham, on the fringes of Kent, make up the top five locations.
How to spot a future millionaire's row
To spot London’s £1m streets of the future Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham and Reeves, says location is everything.
“Close proximity to a transport hub or high street always commands a high price; combining this with an air of privacy is what real boosts value,” he said.
Tony Gambrill, area director at Chestertons, advised buyers to look out for streets with period houses, and good nearby shops and restaurants.
“There is usually a specific location factor that pushes one street over the £1m mark before the others surrounding it,” he said.
“This could be being in the catchment area for a prestigious school, having an interrupted view over — or backing on to — a park, river or garden, or being in a conservation area.”
Established £1 million hotspots
To put today’s study into perspective there are whole swathes of London where every, or almost every, street has an average price of more than £1m.
According to the latest UK House Price Index the average home in Kensington and Chelsea costs £1.4m, up almost ten per cent in the past year, while the average price in Westminster comes in at £963,000, up seven per cent.
The average price across Hackney, meanwhile, is £564,000, down 0.8 per cent in the past year.